At the Google I/O keynote this morning, Google announced that Google Play had seen 48 billion app downloads. This was on the heels of the announcement that there were 900 million Android device activations since inception. Later in the day at roughly 5 pm US Eastern time, Apple said that its App Store saw its 50 billionth app download. This had been long anticipated. And, it's quite a milestone. However, Google partly stole Apple's thunder with its own announcement of nearly the same number of downloads earlier in the day. This afternoon, the following image appeared on Apple's homepage: [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues

Pinterest is upping its mobile game by adding more mention, notification and search features to its iOS and Android apps. Now including the "@" sign before a name makes it possible for Pinterest users to mention friends within the app. The new notification feature alerts users via the app when they have been mentioned or if a comment has been made on one of their pins. Push notifications also have been added, letting users know they received a comment or have been mentioned without opening the app. Because the nature of Pinterest includes finding content from across the Web, the Pint [...]

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Is Google simply trying to create a better user experience on the iPhone and iPad or is it trying to "colonize" iOS with its apps? It all depends on your point of view -- though, it's probably a bit of both. When the new Gmail app for iOS was released May 6, immediately, inflammatory headlines appeared, suggesting that Google was "taking over the iPhone." However, that's not exactly the case. Users of the new Gmail app have the (default) option to go directly to the native versions of YouTube and Google Maps, as well as open Chrome via links in email. Previously, such links would have op [...]

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Google and Facebook combine to take up seven spots on Apple's newly-released list of the Top 25 all-time free iPhone apps. Apple published that list -- and three others -- as part of its countdown to 50 billion App Store downloads, which the company expects to happen soon. (Apple is giving away a $10,000 App Store credit to whomever completes the 50 billionth download and $500 credits to 50 others.) Those lists look at the most popular iPhone apps (free and paid) and iPad apps (free and paid). On the paid side, the majority of apps on both lists are games. But, there's more variety in th [...]

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The March smartphone market share numbers are out from comScore. What we see is Apple gaining 2.7 points to maintain its lead as the top US smartphone maker. Samsung also gained slightly and remains the number two smartphone manufacturer in the US. All other hardware makers, including Google's troubled Motorola unit, lost ground. Below are the smartphone operating system share percentages. Android lost about a point and a half of share. Apple gained 2.7 percentage points. And Windows Phones saw a slight gain. These comScore data above stand in contrast to data released earlier in [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

Google's "predictive search" service Google Now has finally arrived for iOS users, after being Android-only since it launched last June. Ironically, the ground-breaking service is now available to more iPhone and iPad users than Android ones, because on Android, only the minority with Android 4.1 or higher can access Google Now. We have full coverage of the roll-out on our sister-site Search Engine Land: iPhone & iPad Users To Get Google Now, As It Comes To iOS: News about the launch & how Google Now is part of the Google Search App The Amazing “Google Now” — When Google [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: Siri | Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Search

Not that long ago many people were speculating about when smartphone penetration would reach 50 percent. That happened relatively early in 2012. And today US smartphone ownership stands at roughly 60% according to Nielsen. Yesterday IDC reported another milestone: smartphone "shipments" surpassed non-smartphone shipments for the first time in Q1. According to the device-tracking firm, "more than half (51.6 percent) the total phone shipments in a quarter were smartphones." The following chart shows top global phone vendors (all phone shipments) according to IDC: Samsung lead all ot [...]

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Yahoo introduced its new iOS app today, noting that the technology used to build the app was possible because of their recent acquisition of Summly. "The new Yahoo mobile app is also smarter, using Summly's natural-language algorithms and machine learning to deliver quick story summaries," said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a post on Yahoo's corporate blog. Yahoo gained a number of headlines when it acquired Summly less than a month ago for approximately $30 million. Most of the attention was garnered because the startup was founded by a 17 year old who based his technology on a licensing arra [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Top News | Yahoo: Mobile

As law enforcement officials continue their manhunt for one fugitive that's suspected to have been involved in the Boston Marathon bombing this week, consumers looking for the latest news and information have pushed several news and scanner-type apps into the iOS top apps charts. As of about 11:30 am PT, CNN's app has taken over the top spot on the iPhone's free app chart. It wasn't in the top five as recently as last night. Further down the top 10, an app called 5-0 Radio Police Scanner Lite is ranked seventh, TuneIn Radio -- another source for following police scanner communications -- is [...]

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Two reports over the past two days from ad network Chitika shed light on adoption of the much anticipated BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen phone, as well as the current state of tablets in North America. The new iOS and Android competitor is generating 5.3 percent of all BlackBerry traffic, which reflects a "doubling in usage share since the Z10’s US release 20 days prior." That's impressive until those figures are put into context. Chitika also told me that "BlackBerry-based Web traffic as a whole constitutes about 1 percent of all mobile Web traffic on our network." So, in fact, the Z10 is [...]

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Opera has released its quarterly State of Mobile Advertising report for Q1 2013. The major finding is that "iOS continues to outperform all other device platforms in terms of monetization, with the highest average eCPM and greatest percentage of publisher revenue." In addition the iPhone has regained its lead (among the publishers using Opera's Mediaworks platform) over Android handsets on a global basis. This is remarkable given the overall OS lead that Android has now established. Opera observed that "Android tablets [have grown] to a small but noticeable share of the market." However [...]

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Earlier in the week, I speculated that Yahoo might be able to follow Facebook's lead and create a Home-like proprietary software layer on top of Android. But, there would be risks in doing so. An alternative way to boost mobile usage and traffic might be to deepen an existing partnership with another operating system that has massive reach: iOS. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting this afternoon that Apple and Yahoo are having a conversation, with no deal imminent, to expand the amount of Yahoo content available to Siri and pre-loaded on Apple devices. According to the WSJ: But [...]

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The Google Search app for iOS  has been updated with bug fixes and an improved voice search, but there's no mention of Google Now included in the latest version of the app. Last month, the leaked video posted below suggested that Google Now would soon be available for iPhones and iPads via the Google Search app, but there has been no official comment from Google besides a remark Chairman Eric Schmidt made at the Google Big Tent Summit in India. In response to a direct question about the availability of Google Now for iOS, Schmidt said, "You’ll need to discuss that with Apple," inferring [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Search

Canalys’ App Interrogator research published a report showing that there were 13.4 billion app downloads, with revenue of $2.2 billion in the first quarter of 2013. Of that, 74% of the app revenue went through Apple's iTunes network, while Google Play accounted for the most app downloads with 51%. Apple developers earned over $1.6 billion of the $2.2 billion, even though the most number of the app downloads were on Google Play. There were over 6.8 billion app downloads on Google Play according to Canalys. Canalys says there was an 11% growth in downloads across Apple’s App Store, Goo [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Google Play

According to Reuters, a judge on the US International Trade Commission (ITC)  has affirmed that Samsung infringed an Apple patent involving "text selection" (copy, cut, paste). The ITC is a "quasi-judicial federal agency" that reviews patent and trade-related disputes. The decision above is not final and must be reviewed by the full ITC body. Apple originally filed seven infringement complaints against Samsung in 2011. Last October another individual ITC judge held that Samsung infringed four of the seven Apple patents. The full ITC asked that two of those four claims be re-examined mor [...]

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Net Applications, a site that monitors web traffic, announced today that Apple's iOS browser Safari won 61.79 percent of all mobile browser web traffic last month, a solid six-point percentage jump from February when it led with 55.41 percent of the market. At 61.79 percent, Safari ranks high above its competitors, owning 40 percent more than Android's default browser which holds the No. 2 spot in mobile browser marketshare. Android captured 21.86 percent last month, dropping from 22.82 percent in February. Safari and Android are the only browsers with marketshare in the double digits. O [...]

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[caption id="attachment_36725" align="alignright" width="324"] The Pebble[/caption] Consumers have only recently gotten used to smartphones and barely integrated tablets into their routines. Soon they'll be presented with yet another mobile device: wearable computers (watches) from both Apple and Samsung. There are other companies offering or developing versions of a "smartwatch" as well. One such device is the Pebble smartwatch (pictured at right), which raised a record $10 million through kickstarter. It integrates with the iPhone and Android smartphones. The anticipated Apple iWatc [...]

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The tablet is becoming the device of choice in the air. According to Gogo, 35 percent of in-flight Internet usage happens on tablets, 32 percent on smartphones. The remaining 33 percent is on laptops. It's easy to see why tablets are becoming the preferred in-flight work and entertainment device. Economy travelers are often unable to open their laptops when the seats in front of them recline. (As an aside, here's an aggressive response to that problem.) The majority of in-flight mobile devices running on Gogo are on iOS (84 percent), while 16 percent are Android, which has grown from [...]

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The US smartphone story has been pretty consistent for well over a year: Android is now on more than 50 percent of US smartphones, followed by iOS. All others are losing share. Samsung and Apple continue to battle for the top two OEM positions in the market (and around the world). January data from comScore largely repeat and affirm this story line. According to comScore's survey data Android had a 52.3 percent market share in January. However the Google operating system slipped a bit (1.3 points) as the iPhone gained. Apple’s share grew 3.5 percent to 37.8 percent. The US is proba [...]

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While Google's PC search market share may be hovering below 5 percent, Android is the overwhelmingly dominant smartphone operating system in the world's largest mobile market. As a result China may be preparing to take some sort of regulatory action against it. According to a Reuters report the Chinese government released a white paper, through its state-controlled China Academy of Telecommunication Research, that expresses concern about Android's domestic market share. According to figures cited by Reuters Android is on about 90 percent of Chinese smartphones, while iOS has less than 5 [...]

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